The NYSE Starts Letting Funds Run Their Trading Software On Their Cloud Servers

The NYSE is announcing that they're launching a cloud computing platform.

After deciphering the most buzzword-heavy press release we've seen in a while, we can report that the idea is basically to let funds run their trading algorithms and software on a private cloud and rent computing power the same way you do on Amazon or Google's clouds. The system was built using VMWare software.

As far as we can tell, this is different from "colocation" where stock exchanges rent server racks to big quant trading shops so they can execute microsecond trades faster. This is for more general purpose trading and broking operations.

What's interesting about this is that it's a sign of "the cloud" really coming of age. Running broking and trading software is one of the most sensitive types of applications out there, and the fact that NYSE is starting a cloud platform for that is a really good sign. They've even said that while this is a private cloud, they might in time run a version of this on Amazon or Google's public clouds.